Posted on 05/18/2005 5:35:20 AM PDT by SJackson
How both the Left and the Right are missing the most important aspect of the Qur’an-flushing controversy
When in April EBay offered a consecrated host for sale, imagine if Catholics had rioted and seventeen people were killed.
The media would have been full of stories about the dark side of the “Christian Right.”
Imagine if, when Muslims desecrated the Tomb of Joseph in Nablus in 2000, destroying it with hammers, rampaging Jewish mobs had killed dozens of Palestinians.
The establishment media response would again have inundated us with stories about the heroic Palestinians and their Israeli oppressors.
Neither of those things really happened. But seventeen people have been killed and hundreds wounded in riots by Muslims since Newsweek published its story about an American interrogator flushing a Qur’an down the toilet at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.
And yet the media establishment seems preoccupied only with the fact that Newsweek, in publishing a false story that it has since retracted, has done a very bad thing. And that the Bush Administration must do something to calm tempers and soothe feelings in the Islamic world.
There is no excusing Newsweek’s irresponsibility in this. But this is not really a story about media bias or carelessness at all. There is a much larger story that is getting hardly any attention at all. The gorilla in the living room that no one wants to notice, is that flushing a Qur’an down the toilet should not be grounds to commit murder.
This aspect of the story is being ignored by spokesmen on both the Left and the Right. After the initial reports of rioting, Juan Cole sputtered, “Whatever goddam military genius came up with the bright idea of flushing the Koran down the toilet at Guantanamo should be court-martialed, and Bush had better get out there apologizing before this thing spirals further out of control.” On the other side of the political spectrum, Paul Marshall wrung his hands in National Review: “Even if Newsweek publishes a full retraction, the damage is done. Much of the Muslim world will regard it merely as a cover-up and feel reconfirmed in the view that America is at war with Islam.”
Neither Cole nor Marshall, however, made any moral judgment about the rioters. Marshall was furious with Newsweek: “It would be charitable to think that if Newsweek had known how explosive the story was it may have held off until it had more confirmation. If this is true, it is an indication that the media’s widespread failure to pay careful attention to the complexities of religion not only misleads us about domestic and international affairs but also gets people killed.” Cole, for his part, directed his anger at the Bush Administration: “As a professional historian, I would say we still do not have enough to be sure that the Koran desecration incident took place. We have enough to consider it plausible. Anyway, the important thing politically is that some Muslims have found it plausible, and their outrage cannot be effectively dealt with by simple denial. That is why I say that Bush should just come out and say we can’t be sure that it happened, but if it did it was an excess, and he apologizes if it did happen, and will make sure it doesn’t happen again (if it did).”
Neither one says anything whatsoever about a culture that condones — celebrates —wanton murder of innocent people, mayhem, and destruction in response to the alleged and unproven destruction of a book.
The question here is one of proportionate response. If a Qur’an had indeed been flushed, Muslims would have justifiably been offended. They may justifiably have considered the perpetrators boors, or barbarians, or hell-bound unbelievers. They may justifiably have issued denunciations accordingly. But that is all. To kill people thousands of miles away who had nothing to do with the act, and to fulminate with threats and murder against the entire Western world, all because of this alleged act, is not just disproportionate. It is not just excessive. It is mad. And every decent person in the world ought to have the courage to stand up and say that it is mad.
I suspect that even Juan Cole and Paul Marshall, somewhere in the back of their minds, know that it is mad too. But why don’t they say so? Because Rule #1 in the establishment (Left and Right) view of this present conflict is that it has nothing to do with Islam. To bring a moral judgment to bear upon Muslim people, or to explore the ways in which Islam fuels the conflict, is therefore absolutely forbidden.
This kind of analysis, dominant as it is in the media, does the Western world an enormous disservice. The reaction to the Newsweek story in the Muslim world only shows how critical it is that the elements of Islam that give rise to fanaticism and violence be examined and confronted. Lives are at stake. But Cole and Marshall, and many others like them on both the Left and the Right, can’t see this necessity through the enveloping fog of political correctness
It's going to be a long wait, I'm sure.
The MSM has become a poitical party. They all want to play "Watergate".
If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.
Bingo.
A lot of us were sick and tired of the interminable smear of the President; the Bush lied; people died crap that we decided to have some fun ourselves. Revenge is a dish best served cold. >>>veg<<<
The real lesson is hate blinds.
Of course he has a huge point - a culture that stones women and exempts men from same action, where fathers murder their own daughters, is not one that has any right to complain about extremism. And defacing a book, no matter how holy, is certainly not extreme.
I think the Newsweek participants need to be charged with treason (where are the lawyers when we need them?) and as far as anything remotely resembling an apology, it can come from Newsweek and not from our administration.
And where is the Republican backbone we have been looking for? I can't believe the pathetic reactions we are reading about - including Ms. Rice's comments - we the people of the United States have done nothing to the moslem world. They need to aim their anger at the real culprits.
And that is precisely the problem - Newsweek's lies and corruption have brought the anger of the moslem world on all of us, because that is the way the story has been spun.
And Newsweek knew that would happen. They should be shot.
You are exactly right. Ever since woodward and bernstein, every branch of the media, print, TV, and Radio, has tried to find something that would top it, and hasn't been able to. They have resorted to making stuff up, or sensationalizing a story- memogate, abu Ghraib, quran desecration, et al.
NOTE: For the edification the mental defectives that keep making excuses for Islam: The "gorilla in the living room" is that the religion [?] of Moe Hammed is an instruction guide for the death of all self-described infidels. Yes, it is that plain and simple.
The muslims wish to destroy, not only Israel, not only America, but anyone and anything not Muslim.
The sooner we realize that little fact of life the better we will do our job of eradicating them from the world, or at the very least, negate them.
The entire liberal agenda deserves flushing, mainly because it seeks to destroy the fabric of our society.
This liberal NEWSWEAK-rag deserves flushing.
Muslims the world over are obsessed with people agreeing with them. If a person has a strong belief why, they do not need someone else to agree for it to be right. Even if the Quran flushing story were true, why should a Muslim kill someone else over it. This behaviour is just another symptom over a religion that promotes emotional immaturity and justfies killing anyone that does not agree with them. They have been like this for 1000 years and it really shows a "very low self esteem" about themselves which is why they must have everyone agree with them.
The MSM obviously is borderline endorsing these killings by not discussing the behaviour of the Mulsims in killing but only talking about the Newsweek story.
Islam is a barbaric death cult and most Americans do not realize or want to believe that. We continue to deal with them in a politically correct manner and believe reason will work with them. There simple goal is to convert the world to Islam and nothing less will appease them. The USA is the last barrier to that happening and the MSM is the enemy within in this fight.
I am working on 'Piss_Kennedy'
What makes Spencer believe that political correctness is involved in the Cole and Marshall takes on the story? Of course, there are various aspects to the story. Spencer wants to emphasize the the brutal nature of fundamentalist Muslims. Fine. This is a lesson learned many times, especially in the last ten years. However, both Cole and Marshall understand that the more important political lesson involves whether the MSM can be exposed as an appeaser in the WOT and as an unreliable dispenser of information. Cole wants the blame to fall to President Bush, because he hates America above all else. Conservatives generally want to undermine the credibility of the biased media. The conservatives are winning this round. Spencer does a disservice to distract from that fact.
The Islamic fundamentalists have intimidated us. Khomeini put out an order to kill Simon Rushdie for what he wrote about the Koran. Pakistaini mobs burned down the US Embassy in Islamabad on November 21, 1979 based on a rumor that Americans were behind the takeover of the Grand Mosque at Mecca.
As much as I feel revulsion for Newsweek's unsubstantiated allegations, I think more attention should be paid to the reaction of the Muslim world. Why do we seem to excuse this extreme behavior and blame it on the West? If a rumor arose that said a group of Muslims had flushed a bible down a toliet and in response, a crowd of Christians surrounded a mosque and burned it down killing 16 people, would we focus on the source of the rumor and not the excesive reaction of the Christians?
What this incident reveals, as if we didn't know already, is that we are dealing with irrational zealots who want to kill us using any pretext. Unfortunately, I don't believe this extremism is limited to a fringe group in Islam, but represents the majority. We avoid saying that we are indeed involved in a clash of civilizations. Islam needs to change and become part of the 21st century. It is at war with Western Civilization.
I'm still waiting for an avant-garde artist to create a 'Piss_Mohammed' (that is, Mohammed in a bottle of urine) and put it on display in an art gallery somewhere. It's going to be a long wait, I'm sure.
Yes, nobody wants to be another Simon Rushdie condemned to being in hiding the rest of his/her life or dead.
I am working on 'Piss_Kennedy'
All you'd probably need for that would be a pair of his underwear... But you'd have to get a pretty large jar to hold 'em.
I'm still waiting for an avant-garde artist to create a 'Piss_Mohammed' (that is, Mohammed in a bottle of urine) and put it on display in an art gallery somewhere. It's going to be a long wait, I'm sure.Yes, nobody wants to be another Simon Rushdie condemned to being in hiding the rest of his/her life or dead.
It's Salman Rushdie, but, of course, I agree with your point.
But, you know, at some point, rational people have to make a stand against irrational ones. Otherwise, civilization will be lost.
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